The Same MO
by KatherineLynn
Summary: When Kate Beckett starts working a serial killer case, she is put in harm's way. Castle risks his life to save her, but will it bring them closer, or push them apart?
1. A Little Bit Stronger

A/N: Okay, lovely people who are getting Story Updates from me, I know I have another fic going, but I had the idea for this one and I didn't want to lose it, so...here you go. My other fic "A Pen Without Ink", is more of a fluff fic, but this will not be...at least I don't plan to make it as such. It's more dramatic, so not as many giggles as there were in the last one. I apologize!

Disclaimer: The plot is mine, the characters are not.

Chapter One: A Little Bit Stronger

"Please, just let me go, I won't tell anyone, I swear!" Luna Welsh struggled against the rope that held her to her own bed. "Please, I swear. I haven't even seen your face, you can let me go!" She felt she sharp sting of the razor blade and closed her eyes, biting her lip. The pain pinballed its way through her abdomen all the way to her throat, and she swallowed, promising herself she wouldn't look. If her life depended on being blind, blind she would be.

The darkness in her room was only punctuated by the small lamp she had on the bedside table. It cast everything in shadow, and even with her eyes closed, Luna could feel him kneeling beside her, on the left, holding the razor blade aloft.

It tore along the lines of her hands, and she screamed.

"Shh, shhh," the man whispered to her, his lips on her ear. "The more you scream, the longer it will take."

She whimpered into silence, and squeaked when the razor sliced open her lip. She tasted blood in her mouth and spat it out, feeling her saliva and blood land on her naked torso. She sobbed, feeling the bonds tighten against her shaking. She felt the razor slice her upper thigh, and instinctively jerked away from it, making the cut larger. She heard the wet sound of blood dripping onto blood pooling between her legs.

"Drink this," the gruff voice pushed a glass under her cut lip, and she pursed her lips together defiantly. The razor nicked her cheekbone. She gasped and he tossed the liquid into her mouth. It burned on her cut lip. It was scotch. He poured glass after glass down her throat until she was coughing it up. The blood oozed faster from her cuts, and her vision was tunneling to black. She retched.

"No, no, not yet..." something silky was tied around her neck. He tightened it, and she choked, vomit rising again. The man watched until she stopped moving before grabbing the glass, razor, and yanking the sheets out from underneath Luna and tied them together. He sauntered out the front door, sheets thrown over his shoulder, and marched down the dark street.

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The sun had not yet risen when Detective Katherine Beckett's phone started ringing. The annoying sound pressed against her sleep heavy eyelids and she clenched them shut, trying to grasp at the escaping tendrils of the wonderful dream she had been having. When they eluded her, she opened her eyes and reached for her phone. The clock on her bedside table said it was only six in the morning.

"Beckett," she murmured sleepily, stretching her arms over her head like a cat. "Okay, I'll be right there," she said, letting the phone drop from between her ear and her shoulder. It landed with a soft poof on her pillow and she rolled over, already missing the bed she was still lying in. With a grunt, she pushed herself upward and stumbled to the bathroom to wash her face and put on her work clothes.

As she was slipping on her white button up shirt, she dialed Castle. He picked up on the third ring, sounding as tired as she felt. "Castle," he answered softly, sounding like he was still in his dream.

"A body dropped," she replied quietly, not sure why she was speaking so quietly. "I'm on my way to the site. Want me to pick you up?"

He mumbled into the phone, and she could hear the ruffling of the sheets on his bed as he sat up. "Mmm...sure. But you'll have to come drag me out of bed."

She smiled as she checked her appearance in her mirror. "Castle, I have no intention of entering your bedroom." She slipped her heeled boots on as she scooped her keys from the bowl by the front door.

He huffed good-naturedly. "Why not?"

"Because it might send your imagination into overdrive," Beckett purred into the mouthpiece. She heard him sit up straighter and covered her mouth with her fingers, stifling her laugh.

"I am officially awake," he sounded perkier already. "I will meet you at my building. Have no fear, detective, I will have coffee."

She chuckled. "Good, because I need it." As if on cue, she pushed back a yawn. "See you in five."

"Wait!" he exclaimed as she pulled the phone away from her ear. "Aren't you going to tell me that I know you so well? Or...you know...something about the murder?" Beckett stared at her phone, smirked, and pressed 'end.'

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Castle stared at his phone, with a picture of Beckett, from his call list, as he wrinkled his nose against the idea of getting out of his 820 thread count cocoon. He groaned, pulling the covers over his head and closed his eyes again. The idea of a new case, however, was poking him behind the eyes and before he knew it, he was wide awake. Annoyed, he got up, padded barefoot down the stairs, and put some coffee on so it would be ready when Beckett arrived.

"Dad?" Alexis yawned, trudging down the stairs in her slippers. "Why are you up so early?"

He smiled at his sleepy daughter, red hair tangled around her shoulders and drool crusting on her chin. Her sleepy eyes appraised him as he pressed the 'on' button on the coffeemaker and he hugged her close. "Beckett called, and there's been a murder. I'm getting coffee and getting dressed. Why are you up so early?" he asked, pulling her away, wiping the drool off her chin.

"I'm nervous. I have a test in chemistry today," she pointed to the pile of chemistry papers, books, and her notes that were still spread across the bar in the kitchen. "I studied all last week, but..."

Castle pulled her close again. "You'll do amazingly, as usual," he kissed the top of her head. "I would love to boost your confidence further, but if you want that to transpire, you'll have to follow me to my chambers so I can change." Alexis smiled, and shook her head.

"I think I'll look over my notes again," she moved toward the chemistry pile, already looking focused.

"Suit yourself. I'll be back down in a minute." He bounded up the stairs, and glanced back one time to see his daughter flipping through her notes before climbing to the landing. He turned left into his room and snatched a white shirt out of his closet and slipped it on. His phone buzzed while he was buttoning his pants and he reached for it, cradling it between his ear and his shoulder.

"Castle."

"You have two minutes, Castle. I'm still not going into your bedroom," her voice wasn't as alert as he was accustomed, but she sounded awake, at least.

"Coffee will be ready by the time you get here. Just give me a second to pour it, and I'll meet you downstairs," he responded, slipping on his navy blue jacket. She hung up and he slipped on his socks, making sure his phone was in the pocket of his jacket, and grabbed his shoes. He slid down the hall to the stairs, and took them cautiously, not caring to revisit the incident he had pulled a week ago, when he slid all the way down the stairs because he was careless with his socks and balance.

There were two coffee cups filled sitting on the counter when he got there. Alexis smiled behind her chemistry book.

"Did you do this?" he asked, sniffing them.

She smirked. "Who else? Gram?" Castle shrugged, conceding her point. He kissed the top of her head and grabbed his keys.

"You're going to rock that test, sweetie. Have fun, love you!" the door slammed behind him and he rode the elevator down, humming some unknown tune. When the doors opened, he took a sip of the scalding coffee and gasped, spitting it back into the cup, letting his tongue hang out of his mouth to cool. "Haaaaaa-hhtt."

"You better not be thinking about giving me that cup," Beckett quipped, leaning on the frame of her car. "Because I don't want your backwash."

He handed her the other one and slipped into the front seat. "Of course not, I would never dream of it," he put his in the cup holder. "But I don't recommend drinking it just yet, it could take all your taste buds off."

Beckett took a big swig and set it in the cup holder. "Nah, it's not that hot."

Castle looked astonished. "How did you...?"

She raised an eyebrow as she pulled away from the curb. "I'm amazing," she replied without looking at him. "So!" he jumped, and she flipped her hair away from her face so she could see. The sun was rising, and her eyes glowed green in the appearing light. "According to Lanie, this is a pretty gruesome case, I hope you didn't eat breakfast first."

He had the dignity to look offended. "Why would that matter?"

She took her eyes off the road to give him an exasperated look. "I don't want to see your vomit," she shuddered. "Again."

"That was one time, and no one is going to let me forget it!"

"That's right," she sing-songed, pulling up to an apartment building crawling with uniforms. "We're headed to the fifth floor. Our victim's name is Luna Welsh."

The door to the apartment was open when they got there, uniforms already inside, looking for evidence that could point to a suspect. "Where's the vic?" Castle asked.

"Bedroom," Beckett replied, leading the way. "Oh my..."

"God," Castle finished for her, feeling his stomach get queasy. "I'm glad I didn't eat breakfast." Beckett didn't even smile. She surveyed her victim, a beautiful brunette, naked and tied to her own bed. Bloody cuts marred the creamy skin of her upper thigh, her lips, and the palms of her hands.

"What is that around her neck?" Castle asked, unwilling to step closer. "And what is that smell?"

"What you're smelling is the combination of sex, sweat, vomit, and scotch," Lanie Parish answered his question from the floor, where she was taking scissors to the silky material around the victim's neck. "I would place time of death around one this morning. Her best friend came to the door to wake up our vic here for their daily run, and found her like this."

"It's her underwear around her neck," Beckett answered Castle's other question. He shuddered, and took a tentative step closer. "Where's her friend?"

"Esposito took her down to the station to get her statement, she was freaking out here."

"Yeah for good reason," Castle grimaced as he noted the vomit on the victim's lips. "How did she die?"

"She drowned," Lanie replied matter-of-factly.

"Drowned?" Castle and Beckett asked simultaneously.

"You mean...?" Beckett pointed at her throat. "On her...vomit?" Castle watched her stomach contract under her navy blue jacket, and he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked. She placed the top of her fingers over her lips and swallowed, nodding her head.

"I'll be fine," she snapped. "Did we find what made those cuts?" she asked, pointing at the victim's hands.

Lanie shook her head. "Not yet, but so far, we haven't found any DNA evidence. I'll have to get her down to the lab to do a SART kit, but until then, all we know for sure is your killer wore gloves."

"Of course he did," Beckett muttered. "Well, we should head down to the station, talk to that friend." She made a beeline for the door, Castle following behind.

"Shouldn't we make a sweep of the crime scene, do some reflecting, stare into space, think deep thoughts?" he glanced up, and saw Beckett leaning against the frame of the elevator, her hand across her stomach. "Beckett?"

"I've never been good at dealing with vomit Castle, it's no big deal. Like the childish 'if I see it, I'll do it' kind of thing." She pushed her hair out of her face and heaved a strenuous breath. "Let's just get out of here. When they move the body to the morgue, I'll come back."

They rode the elevator down to the ground floor, almost plowing into a blonde man going the opposite way when the doors opened. Castle stayed behind Beckett, keeping an unhindered eye on her as she made her way to her car. When she unlocked the door, she caught him staring. "What?" she asked.

"We match," he replied noncommittally and took the passenger seat. It was still early in the morning, and he felt his eyes drifting closed as Beckett drove back to the precinct. When she threw the car into park, he jerked awake, blinking against the sunlight. She smiled as she turned away, taking care to grab her coffee on her way out of the car.

Michelle Perkins was distraught, as well she should have been. The petite blonde girl had discovered her best friend naked, dead, and tied to her bed. Her round green eyes were red-rimmed and her nose was roughly the color of Rudolph's. She sniffed and wiped her nose again with her already saturated tissue. Beckett sat across from her and handed her a box. Castle watched from the observation room.

"Miss Perkins, when did you find Luna?" she asked gently.

The girl burst into immediate tears, and Beckett patted her hand awkwardly. "A...about fi...five AM."

"And you called 911 right after?"

The girl hiccupped and nodded. "We always go on a jog at about five o'clock, but she never gets up on time, so I can't meet her anywhere, I go wake her up. And after, we go get coffee and breakfast, and then we go to work together."

"And where do you work, Miss Perkins?" Beckett asked, writing down the usual timeline on her notebook.

"We work together at Starbucks. We're part-time students. We were working on our thesis," she sniffed and a snot-bubble appeared. She wiped her nose again and gulped. "I can't believe...why would someone do this?" she asked.

"We're going to figure that out, Michelle."

"Call me Minnie."

Beckett smiled comfortingly and nodded. "Okay, Minnie. Did Luna have any enemies at the university or at work?"

Minnie shook her head, sniffing again. "No...everyone loved her."

Beckett made a note of it. She suspected as much. "Did she have a boyfriend or husband?"

"Mark was her boyfriend until recently. They broke up, but Luna was talking about getting back together with him," Minnie replied, shredding her tissue.

"Mark who?"

"Mark Irving. He's a student. He's studying art," Minnie supplied. "They were together a really long time, and when they broke up, they were both really torn up about it. She thought Mark was cheating."

"Was he?"

"We don't know..." Minnie shrugged. "It doesn't really matter now, I guess." She made a choking sound, and wiped her eyes again.

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"She's really good at that," Castle noted, standing in the observation room with Esposito and Ryan.

Esposito looked offended. "I got all of that information, bro, no problem."

"It's because it's Beckett," Ryan nudged him.

Esposito smirked. "Of course it is. Everything Beckett does is awesome. Super awesome," he leaned against the glass. "So when are we getting rid of Motorcycle Boy?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Castle looked confused.

"Come on dude, you want a shot, we gotta get rid of that doctor boy," Esposito raised his eyebrows. "Think if he gets arrested, she'll dump him?"

"Guys, I don't think that would be smart..."

Ryan nudged Esposito. "We can plant some drugs on him...we have connections..."

Castle snapped and pointed. "Good one."

"What are you guys talking about?" Beckett was leaning against the doorframe, holding her coffee cup, the one she had gotten from Castle, her fingers interlocked.

"Nothing!" they all responded simultaneously.

"Really? That's funny, because I thought we had a murder to solve," she turned on her heel and clomped back to her desk, where she handed Esposito her notebook. "I need you to look up Mark Irving, he's a student at NYU. Bring him in when you find him."

"Will do, boss."

"How do you feel?" Castle asked, taking his usual seat next to her.

She put her head in her hands. "You know, it's never easy to talk to someone right after their friend is found dead, but then you have to call their parents and tell them that they outlived their offspring. And then...it's tough."

Castle placed a comforting hand on her back. "I mean the vomiting."

Beckett sat up straight. "Right, of course." She tossed her hair away from her face. "I'm fine." Her phone vibrated, and Castle instinctively glanced at the display. Josh's name popped up. Beckett stared at it for a second, and flipped the phone over, letting it go to voicemail.

"I have to call next of kin," she answered his questioning look. "I don't have time to be taking personal calls," she cradled her phone between her shoulder and her ear and dialed. "Hello, is this Mr. Welsh? This is Detective Kate Beckett with the NYPD, I'm calling about your daughter."

Surprisingly, Beckett felt her throat close up, tears stinging her eyes. She wasn't used to having an emotional response to a murder, not after so many years of working homicide. Watching her victim's friend fall apart, after seeing the body, alerting the parents was almost unbearable. She stumbled, and placed her hand on Castle's knee. He placed his hand on top of hers and squeezed.

She felt stronger already.


	2. This Is The House That Doubt Built

A/N: Thank you for the three reviews I received on the first chapter! I'm used to getting...well...none, so thank you three so much! The only one of you three who asked a question was xXBoothxBonesXx, and you asked what the initials were. You got the Katherine Beckett, Richard Castle part, but the last half is Stana Katic, Nathan Fillion. Alright, on to the next chapter, then!

Disclaimer: I know I wish every night when I go to sleep that I could have this show, but the plot is all I have.

Chapter Two: This is the House that Doubt Built

"Okay, Mark, can you tell me where you were between midnight and three AM this morning?" Beckett asked, leaning forward toward her folder. Mark Irving, a handsome scruffy twenty-two year old, shifted in his seat.

"Can I ask what this is about?" he was the most polite murder suspect Beckett had in the interrogation room in a while, so she indulged him with little to no sarcasm.

"Your ex-girlfriend Luna was found dead this morning in her apartment," she replied, leaning back to gauge his reaction. She found that she could almost rule out suspects just by their initial reaction to hearing that one of their loved ones was dead. Mark was no exception. His slightly pink face lost all color and a tear fell from his eye before he could even blink. He looked shocked to find it on his cheek and wiped it away, his mouth open.

"I...I don't...this is a joke, right?" he looked to Castle, who shook his head. Mark clenched his jaw closed and sniffed, trying to contain his emotions in front of strangers. "What happened to her?"

Beckett's mind immediately transported her back to the crime scene, and she found herself swallowing back the bile that rose in her throat. She closed her eyes momentarily and steadied herself. "That's what we're trying to figure out," she answered. "So, where were you?"

"I was at home," Mark kept his eyes on Beckett's hands, "My roommate can attest. I was painting all night," he held out his hands for evidence. The lines of his hands were lined with red and orange paint, and Beckett found herself envisioning Luna's hands, dried and cracked with blood from the cuts that were sliced into the tender skin of her palm.

"What is your roommate's name?" she asked, blinking several times.

"Alex Kenny, he works at Saks," Mark said. "Look, do you have any idea who did this?"

"We should ask you the same thing," Castle replied. "Did Luna have any enemies, anyone who didn't get along with her?"

Mark bit his lip, running through his mental contact list. "Luna was loved all around. No one hated her. It was kind of hard to; she was such a happy person."

Beckett forced herself to pay attention and leaned forward. "So why did you two break up?"

Mark pursed his lips. Clearly this was not a subject he liked to dwell on. "She thought I was cheating on her with one of my friends from school, but I wasn't!" He held up his hands as if to surrender, to try to make them believe him. "She's my cousin, and we hadn't seen each other since we were kids, we hardly recognized each other. I tried to tell Luna that, but she was convinced. So I had planned for her to meet Olivia this weekend so she could tell Luna herself."

"Why didn't she believe you?" Castle asked. "Don't get me wrong, I know sometimes she can feel like there's no other alternative, but if she was such a happy person, why wouldn't she give you the benefit of the doubt?"

Mark shrugged. "That's what I asked her. I thought it was Minnie that was putting ideas in her head, but now I'll never know."

"Had Olivia ever met Luna before?" Beckett asked.

"She had seen her picture, but that's it," another tear fell from Mark's eyes and he wiped it off the table in embarrassment. "I had nothing to do with this," he said. "I loved her. I would do anything for her, and if I had been there when she was killed, I would have given my life so she could live."

Castle looked astonished. "That's a big statement to make," he noted.

"Haven't you ever felt like you found someone you couldn't live without?" Mark asked pleadingly. "Like you would die if something happened to them? Luna was that person for me. I would die for her in a heartbeat. She was the love of my life. She will always be the love of my life."

Castle, chagrined, glanced down at the table and over at Beckett's pale profile. She kept her eyes downcast and bit her lip, her eyelashes fluttering for a second in Castle's direction.

"Thank you for coming in, Mark. I'm so sorry for your loss," she said. She opened the door for him and let him out before her, shutting the door after him. "Well that was a bust," she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and tried to shake off the nauseous feeling this case was giving her.

"He really loved her," Castle muttered.

Beckett narrowed her eyes at him from under her hand. "Yeah, so?"

"So, he said that he thought Minnie was the one putting those ideas of him cheating in her head. What if she was?"

"Castle, I interviewed Minnie, it's not her," Beckett replaced her hand over her eyes and returned to her seat. "She was devastated."

"I've seen killers act before," Castle pointed out. "But you're probably right." He sat in silence, tapping his chin with his finger, before groaning in frustration. "We've got nothing!"

Beckett looked vaguely amused. "Castle, we just started investigating. Did you want the killer to just drop by and say 'oh by the way, I totally did it!'?" She leaned forward and put her head on the cold table so she could hold her stomach without Castle seeing. "Because he's not."

"Are you still feeling sick?"

She sat in silence for almost a minute before she answered him. "I don't know what it is about this case, but I have a bad feeling about it. I just can't shake this horrible nauseous feeling," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Maybe you're pregnant," Castle chuckled. She sat up and fixed him with a glare, her mouth twisted upward in a kind of sick smirk. He looked sorry he said it the second he looked into her mortified eyes, and then the full realization of what he had just said hit him. He clenched his hands into fists. He had just suggested that she and Josh were having sex, and now he was picturing it and it was doing nothing good for his temper. He felt the inexplicable urge to punch himself.

"I wouldn't count on it, Castle," she retorted, standing up.

Castle, facing away from Beckett, looked hugely relieved. When she opened the interrogation room door and left, he jumped up and followed her. "What's our next move?"

"We go see Lanie," Beckett shimmied out of her jacket and draped it on the back of her chair, leaving her coffee behind on the desk. "See what she's got for us."

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"It was definitely rape," Lanie announced, drawing the sheet down to Luna's shoulders. Her face had been cleaned, though Beckett still looked pale. "Tearing of the vaginal wall, and traces of spermicide, so no semen, however, remember biology class in high school? When we had to dissect frogs and our teachers gave us dull razors to use to cut them open? Her cuts were made from the same kind, only it was sharp, extremely sharp."

Lanie took Luna's wrist and held up her hand. "See what I mean? If you look at her skin clean, you can't even see any of the slices. But, if you do this," she pushed Luna's fingers back just half an inch, "You can see all the little nicks he put in her flesh."

Beckett took a step backward and covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers again. Castle took a step forward, mostly to block Beckett's view of the body. "That is horrific," he commented. "I mean, cuts like that take a few seconds to hurt, but then the sting doesn't go away. And..."

"They keep bleeding," Lanie finished. "Also, he tied her to the bed with a generic three thread rope, and raped her first. Then, he cut her. I found traces of salt in the wounds, from her dried sweat. Then he poured scotch down her throat until her blood started thinning, causing the blood to flow faster from her cuts until she was on the verge of passing out and started vomiting. When she starting throwing up, he took her discarded underwear and tied them around her neck, so she drowned in her own vomit."

"I have to get out of here," Beckett launched herself away from the table and out the door, practically running out of the morgue.

Lanie watched her friend go. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's been feeling sick all day, but it didn't start until we got this case. The crime scene, the interrogation, now...she says she has a bad feeling about it."

"I don't blame her. This is pretty gruesome stuff," Lanie covered Luna's face with the sheet and leaned against the table. "A gunshot is one thing, but Beckett doesn't come in contact with a lot of sexual assault cases. I think being her, the big shot and the strong one around here; it's hard for her to understand being overpowered, like these women were. It makes her sick to think about."

Castle frowned. "And here I was, suggesting she was pregnant."

Lanie looked at him in exasperation. "Why would you suggest that?"

"I...I dunno..."

She smacked him in the chest with her gloved hand. "Unless you and her have had sex recently, don't even bring it up," she scolded. "Pregnant. Jesus, Castle, you would think you would know better."

"You would think..." Castle muttered. "I'm going to go find her."

"And knock her up?"

"No!"

"Then don't talk about it!"

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"Yeah, I was so mad, I mean, I told her to stay away from Jordan, but did she listen? Of course not! Yeah, I know. Anyway, I just got home, so I'll talk to you tomorrow, k? See you at eight. Bye."

"Welcome home, Elizabeth."

The pretty brunette turned on her heel and screamed. A gloved hand came up to cover her mouth. "Shhh, it's okay, it'll all be over soon enough."

Elizabeth squirmed and kicked against the man holding her, but he had no problem carrying her to her own bedroom, where each post of her bed already had rope tied to it. He slammed her down and connected her wrists and ankles. He placed duct tape over her mouth and kissed it, holding her chin roughly with his leather gloves.

Tears streamed from her eyes into her hair as she whimpered against the tape, pleading silently for the man to let her go. He wrenched her shirt open, sending buttons skittering across the floor, and she squeaked in surprise.

"It'll be just fine, Elizabeth, don't worry. Your pain will be over soon."

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Beckett leaned against the sink in the women's restroom, cradling her head in her hands, willing herself not to throw up. She heaved a sigh and looked into the mirror, into her reflection, and smoothed her hair. Her face was paler than usual, and she wrinkled her nose at herself, dissatisfied.

A tentative knock sounded at the door. "Beckett?" Castle's voice echoed throughout the bathroom. "Are you okay?"

She half-smiled and pulled the door open, causing him to almost topple over. "I'm fine, Castle."

He looked at her pale face and shaky hands. "You don't look fine," he noted.

"Yo," Esposito handed Beckett a manila folder. "We just looked into Mark, Minnie's, and Luna's financials, all clean. None of them had any reason to kill her."

Beckett didn't even glance at the papers, she just handed them back to Esposito. "I figured as much. So, why don't we go up to the university and see if she had any enemies or we can go to her job and find out of there were any customers that didn't like her or if there were any people who came in just to watch her. See if you find similarities."

"Similarities?" Ryan asked, coming to a stop behind Esposito.

"Look and see if there's a common person between the university and the job. I'm thinking this is more of a stalker than an enemy, so let's see what we can dig up."

"Beckett?" Montgomery leaned out of his office, his phone attached to his ear. "We've got another one."

Beckett turned to Castle, who looked apologetically at her, and as Ryan and Esposito took off toward their car, he placed a hand delicately on her back, just for a second, to let her know that if she needed him to, he would help her through it. She smiled up at him through a thin curtain of hair and grabbed her keys.

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It was the same man. Elizabeth Williams, aged 30, was lying dead in her own vomit, tied by each limb to her four-poster bed. Lanie determined time of death to be around two hours prior.

"Then how did we find the body so fast?" Beckett asked, keeping her back to Elizabeth's body.

Lanie almost smirked. "Your killer seems to have gotten a little sloppy. He didn't subdue your victim fast enough, because she got out a good few screams somewhere in the duration of his torture. He duct taped her mouth, but by the time he took it off to make her drink, she was still conscious enough to scream. And her neighbors were loud enough to call the cops. They thought she was watching a horror movie on loud."

"So she fought him. Any DNA under her fingernails?"

"She fought, but not that well. None that I can find so far," Lanie took off her gloves and grabbed Beckett's hand. "Are you sure you're going to be okay here?"

Beckett reclaimed her hand. "Castle told you?"

"You ran out of my morgue, girlfriend. I already figured," Lanie shrugged. "At least I didn't suggest you were pregnant."

Beckett blushed. "That was mortifying."

Lanie nodded. "Yeah, well, Castle looked as sick as you do at the thought of you and Motorcycle Boy, so I would cut him some slack."

Beckett glanced over at Castle, who was keeping his distance from the body while trying to glean some sort of insight, and looked back at Lanie. "He did?"

"Please, you think that man wants to think about you with anyone else but himself?" Lanie smirked. "He didn't think before he spoke, and that was his problem."

Beckett smiled. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Yeah, yeah, get out of here, before you add more vomit to my crime scene," Lanie shooed her away.

"Lanie!" Beckett protested.

"Anything different?" Castle asked, joining Beckett's now solo conversation. She shook her head, noting now that Lanie had mentioned it, that Castle was avoiding her eyes, but still trying to be supportive.

"Nothing new, except she fought him a little more than Luna did," Beckett replied. "There's nothing else for us to get here, so let's go."

"Where to?" he asked.

"The precinct," she replied. "We would need to find a connection between these two vics, and we can't do that unless we talk to Mark or Minnie again and I don't think either of them are up for it today, excuse me," she added, dodging a passerby on the street.

"So, why don't you let me make you lunch at the loft?" Castle asked.

Beckett paused in the process of unlocking her car, and raised an eyebrow. "Is this an apology for asking if I was pregnant?" she asked.

Castle's face turned red. "Look...Beckett...I..."

"It's okay," she reassured him, sliding gracefully into her car. "I know you were just blurting out your normal slew of helpful insights. I'm not taking it too seriously or anything if that's what you're worried about."

Castle let out a sigh and leaned back in the passenger seat. "In that case...let me just buy you some Chinese food?"

"I'm not really hungry," she pointed out.

Castle gave her a chiding look. "You've been running around all morning and all you've had is coffee. You need to eat. TO CHINESE FOOD!" he shouted, pointing forward. Beckett turned on the car and turned to him, smirking.

"Please?" he asked, his hands in prayer position.

Beckett put the car in drive. "You're such a child."

"Chinese food, here we come! Pananananana pananananana!"

"Castle!"

"Sorry."


End file.
